What does hinei mah tov mean?

Answer 1

It's the "hinei" that's the problem. We hear it translated most often as "Behold", which is unfortunate, because that word is no longer used in English conversation, and the consequence of that is that nobody has any idea of its visceral meaning. To me, "Hinei" is somewhere between "Look !" and "Wow !" depending on the context. That makes the meaning of this phrase: "Look ! How good ...", or "Wow ! How great ...". =============================================== By the way ... this question brings up an important point that I just learned this year at Passover, and can't resist sharing here. It's on the subject of the so-called Four "Questions" or "Ma Nishtana" of the seder. Every year, we hear discussions of what are the questions all about, what do they mean, why are the kids asking, and what are the answers. All of this hangs on the word "ma" as in "Ma nishtana" ... always translated as "Why ?". Exceptabove, in this Wiki question ! "Hinei ma tov ..." clearly means "Wow ! HOW good ! ...". When Bilam exclaimed "Ma tovu ohalecha ...", he clearly meant "HOW good ! ...", and when David sang "Ma gadlu ma'asecha ...", he was clearly exclaiming "HOW wonderful !". So maybe, at the seder, what the kids are really marveling at is "Ma nishtana ...", "HOW different this night is from all the others !". That's all I wanted to point out.